The present invention relates primarily to the making of tea and dispensing of the tea to a customer at a restaurant or at a take-out service where carry-out drink containers with disposable lids are used or at home where disposable lids are desired.
Recently, there has been a rapid increase of gourmet coffee shops which dispense gourmet coffee, tea and other beverages for on-premises or off-premises consumption in drink containers. The shops have catered to the coffee drinker by providing a wide variety of specialized coffee products including customized blends.
Many consumers in response to a perceived need to reduce their consumption of caffeine, are changing from coffee to tea, particularly herbal teas which are either very low in caffeine or completely caffeine free. However, the confirmed tea drinker generally finds a very limited variety of teas and only in the form of a tea bag, leaving the consumer with less than a gourmet experience.
While the processes of brewing tea and coffee have many similarities, the brewing of tea has traditionally been considered an art and hence, has not been, until the recent concern about caffeine, a part of fast-food or take-out services where drinks are dispensed in containers with disposable lids.
Prior to the creation of the tea bag, tea was brewed by pouring hot water over tea leaves in a pot and steeped until the tea reached desirable strength after which it was poured into a cup and consumed. Screens or strainers were provided to keep the tea leaves from escaping into the cup from which the consumer would drink the tea beverage. While the advent of the tea bag prevented the escape of tea leaves into the tea beverage, there are many disadvantages to the tea bag. For instance, the amount of tea leaves present in the bag is determined exclusively by the tea bag manufacturer. Tea drinkers vary in their desires for strength of the tea and the flavor of the tea. In fact, teas offer a much wider range of essences and flavors than do coffees.
Many tea drinkers are acutely aware of environmental problems and, for such consumers, there is a negative reaction to bleached papers used in tea bags. Furthermore, the use of strings and staples to facilitate the placing of the tea bag in the cup creates problems in the disposition of such products. Elimination of the string and staples requires the server to use tongs to place the tea bag in the cup for sanitation reasons.
The foregoing disadvantages associated with tea bags are exacerbated when the beverage is sold “to go”. If the consumer tries to remove the bag because it interferes with the opening through which the tea flows, it may require the consumer to open the lid in order to remove the bag or place the bag in a certain position thus subjecting the consumer to possible injury due to the high temperature of the water.
The foregoing aspects of the prior art practices argue strongly for using brewing methods other than those involving tea bags and conventional container lids. The present invention, in several embodiments described below, avoids or eliminates some of the disadvantages related to use of tea bags and other brewing methods requiring strainers and the like. The present invention also overcomes some of the difficulties and disadvantages faced by lids for beverages, as those lids are conventionally constructed in the prior art. Yet the present invention also can be used with bagged tea or other pre-charged infusions or pre-charged brewed beverages such as coffee bags and the like.
Bulk or “loose” tea is perceived to be of higher quality than bagged tea. Bulk tea requires less space per serving than the bagged tea and has virtually no waste to be disposed of in comparison to the bagged tea which has the envelopes containing the tea bags, the box in which the envelopes are shipped and the bag itself. In order to serve a popular market successfully, the vendor should be able to offer several varieties of black tea, several varieties of green tea and a significant number of herbal teas along with a number of flavoring enhancers or additives. These provide at least 10 or 20 varieties of teas and flavoring products, all of which are available at a lower cost in bulk, “loose” form which can be shipped and stored in much smaller containers. The use of jars or cans or the like, is particularly desirable because they can be resealed thus preserving freshness.
Besides tea, there are other hot beverages which can benefit from the present invention. For example, there are flavored coffees which must be made and served in quantity rather than to the customer's individual taste. Like tea, the coffee can be provided in bulk so that the customer can pick and choose a mixture of flavors to provide his or her customized hot drink.
In the manufacture of the tea bags, the tea leaves tend to become crushed and broken thereby restricting the circulation of the leaves in the hot water. Most tea bag manufacturers tend to use a lower quality of tea leaves. Furthermore, there is the problem of the disposal of the tea bag. Tea bags are generally available in only one or two sizes as are the size of the containers thus limiting the strength of the tea drink provided.
Tea drinkers of today have reached a degree of sophistication where they are desirous of customized blends of tea leaves to provide a particular essence and flavor which is not available in the array of pre-manufactured tea bags. To serve this need, shops may have canisters of many different tea leaves to provide the consumer with the opportunity to experiment with blends until the desired essence and flavor is present. But simply placing the tea leaves in a drink container and adding hot water leaves the tea leaves loose in the bottom of the drink container. Many tea drinkers have a variety of tea leaves at home so as to provide a customized flavor and essence. However, it is not always advantageous to brew tea the old fashioned way.
The present invention provides a disposable lid with filter for a drink container to overcome the problem of loose tea leaves or any other insoluble matter not desirous to consume from reaching the mouth of the drink consumer.